Delivery confirmation no longer a valid defense against Amazon A-Z claim?

Today Amazon granted an A-Z claim for an item which had delivery confirmation. In fact, the customer admitted (via email) that the item arrived *after* she filed the claim, but didn't know how to withdraw her A-Z.

Amazon subtracted the money from our account, and sent us this message:

"Thank you for your response. Unfortunately the tracking information you provided does not include signature confirmation of delivery. As a result, this is insufficient evidence of delivery to the intended recipient. Note that many carriers, including the USPS, use a delivery confirmation that does not confirm delivery to the recipient's address, but instead only confirm delivery to the zip code."

So now *signature confirmation* is necessary for every order, or less sellers are not covered by the A-Z guarantee? Makes no sense, because the A-Z program is insurance that ever seller buys into! (that's what the $1.35 variable closing fee allegedly pays for).

Fortunately, this does not affect FBA sellers. FBA sellers have NO A-Z coverage. They continue to be charged the $1.35 variable closing fee, but receive no benefits.

Debunking the latest FBA feedback myth: Folks, FBA will NOT remove your negative feedback

Today (Wednesday, January 28) FBA issued a statement saying that they will consider "striking" FBA sellers who receive negative feedback, under certain circumstances (lots of small print).

Discussion boards were buzzing with gleeful FBA sellers, who failed to read the small print!

FBA was immediately flooded with email requests, and it took only a few hours for FBA to post a new statement, clarifying that NONE of the requests to "strike" feedback actually met their criteria.

Basically, here's the "small print" on their new policy:

-Feedback will never be fully retracted - it will be stricken through
-Feedback striking is not retroactive (nobody's past negative feedback will be erased)

...and, the biggest caveat - no feedback will be removed if the feedback complains about the condition, even when FBA (or the carrier) damaged the item!

This is the cause for 90% of the negative FBA feedback - that the FBA warehouse damages an item!!

So basically, the only time Amazon will remove feedback if:

-FBA sends the wrong item
-If a seller specifically says "this mistake was the fault of the FBA warehouse" (which never, ever happens. Trust me, customers don't understand FBA, and don't care - they just want their book)
-Finally, if somebody says "Amazon sucks" in their feedback... which Amazon already has a policy against! The bottom line is, almost nothing has changed!

This is basically lip service - something to make FBA sellers feel better, and to boost recruitment (too many people have read too many blogs and horror stories like the ones we document here). In actuality, this "new" policy will not make things better for most sellers.

Problem with FBA order - "new" book shows up factory sealed, but with highlighting & underlining

Two weeks ago we ordered a "new" book from an FBA seller, and it arrived factory sealed and on time.

However, today we opened the book, and it had highlighting and notes on EVERY page! How could this happen? Somebody is being extremely disingenuous.

Further, we contacted FBA via email, and they said sometimes this type of damage occurs during shipping. HUH? How does underlining occur during shipping??? (full email below)

Next, we used the "click-to-call" feature, which took 25 minutes - and they offered us a $1.40 refund, or we could return the book for a full refund. (read other post here)

The most disturbing thing was that we wanted to look up the wording of the seller's original description (mainly to see if the item was described as sealed at the "factory", or if they disclosed they were selling remainders or books that were somehow remanufactured). Anyway, the original description cannot be accessed by the buyer. Not even Amazon could tell us over the phone what the original description was.

Common Questions about FBA; Q&A

Here is a quick list of common questions we get about "Fulfillment by Amazon":


Can sellers get negative feedback from FBA orders/warehouse mistakes?
Yes

Are FBA sellers still covered by A-Z protection?
No

Can a seller be reprimanded or suspended for negative feedback from FBA orders? Yes

Can a seller be reprimanded or suspended or customer complaints about FBA-fulfilled orders?
Yes

Will FBA work with my 3rd party listing/repricing software?
No - FBA does not work with Seller Engine, Art of Books, Alibris, and most others.

Can I reprice my FBA items?
Yes - we had started working on a tutorial for this, but FBA has changed the layout of seller central too many times.

Are there hidden fees not explained in the FBA Rate Card/Fee Chart?
Yes - In addition to the fees on the official fee chart (Order Handling Fee, Pick & Pack Fee, and Weight Handling Fee) there are several hidden (also called passive) fees. Here are a few:

VCF (variable closing fee, $1.35 per order)

Restocking Fee (5%, when items are rturned)

Storage Fee ($0.45 - $0.65 per foot)

Oversize fees (you pay an extra $3.00 per item)

Stickering Fee (pay directly to the FBA staff, or buy your own stickers, $0.03 per item)

Weight error Fees (A common error in the Amazon database. i.e., If you are selling a mass market book, and it is classified as 4 pounds instead of 4 ounces, you will pay an additional $1.60 per item)

Non-Amazon sale Fees (if you sell an item outside Amazon, additional fees range from $1.40 -$3.00 more per item)

Priority & International Fees (between $7.40 and $17.00)

Be aware that these will be deducted out of your account, sometimes entered as a "miscellaneous adjustment". As sellers get used to the system & adjust to the new (and ever-changing) fees, some sellers have experienced more fees than income, with a net-zero or net-negative earnings their first month.

Where can I get more information about FBA fees?
Click here for a nuts & bolts example of one seller's fees (an apples-to-apples comparison, before & after FBA)

And, click here for a list of 12 "passive" fees not explained up-front in the FBA fee chart.

Where can I learn more about how weight fees are charged?
Click here for an analysis of how Amazon determines the fees for the weight &/or dimensions of your item

What happens if a customer cancels or returns an order?
FBA deducts the amount from your account. They will not notify the seller.

Do sellers have any control over refunds?
No

What happens to inventory that doesn't sell?
You either pay for indefinite storage, or you pay to have it returned to you

Does FBA ever damage inventory?
Yes

If a customer returns an item, does FBA relist it for me?
No - you must manually relist the item. You will, however, pay for storage fees in the meantime.

Will FBA notify me that items have been returned &/or refunded?
No - you must review your inventory & transactions periodically. Returns will be noted as "miscellaneous deduction" - no reason will be indicated, no records are kept of customer service issues.

If the item is returned due to condition (either FBA damaged the item, a customer opened/damaged the item, or it was damaged in transit), will it be relisted?
No - you must (1) pay to have it discarded, or, (2) pay to have it shipped back to you, so you can inspect it and make a decision about it's sale-ability, or, (3) you will pay storage fees for that item indefinitely.

Does FBA ever send the wrong item?
Yes, occasionally there are mix-ups in the FBA warehouse

What happens if FBA damages an item and the customer complains?
FBA deducts the amount from your account, and you risk getting negative feedback

Is there a phone number for the FBA warehouse?
No, the only way to contact FBA is by generating a support ticket. In most cases, you will receive an answer within 24 hours. If it is a difficult question, or a technical issue, it may take up to 3 weeks to receive an answer.

Will FBA handle ALL customer service for the orders they fulfill?
No - only if the customer knows to contact Amazon. Customers will often continue to contact the seller about the status of their order.

Can the seller issue a refund to an FBA customer who complains?
No - this functionality is disabled for sellers.

What if a customer refuses to call FBA - can the seller submit a support ticket?
No. We have heard several stories where customers feel they are getting the "runaround" by being asked to call or email somebody else. If the customer refuses to call the Amazon customer support, there is nothing the seller can do - and you risk receiving negative feedback.

Does FBA provide tracking numbers for orders?
No

Does FBA pack orders well?
Sometimes - we've received reports both ways, and it seems to depend on the warehouse. One buyer reported purchasing 15 items from an FBA seller, and they were thrown into a large box without any padding, packing, or peanuts of any kind.

Do FBA orders come in Amazon boxes?
Yes. FBA announced they may soon work on ways for sellers to specify whether they want orders shipped in FBA boxes or blank boxes.

How long does it take to send items in to the FBA warehouse?
Plan to spend at least 30-60 minutes preparing your shipment online. You must create a special sku for each item, convert each item from Merchant-fulfilled to Amazon-fulfilled, you must set the quantity (again), then confirm your shipment, prepare/print item labels, prepare/print packing slip, prepare/print shipping labels, chose a carrier, and mark your box as shipped.

Then, you must sticker/label each item (some items require multiple stickers), and pack them up. When FBA checks in your inventory, if they do not agree with the condition of the item (i.e., they feel it is "good" and you marked it as "very good" or "like-new") then your item will be marked as un-fulfillable, and will not be listed for sale on Amazon.com.

What kind of stickers are required for FBA?
FBA requires that all bar codes are covered with a unique FBA bar code. These are standard Avery stickers (roughly $0.03-$0.05 per sticker, if you can find a generic brand). Some items require up to 3-4 stickers - every bar code on the product must be covered.

Do customers ever complain about the stickers?
Yes - especially if they purchase the item as a gift. We suggest paying extra for the "easy-peel" stickers, to cut down on negative feedback.

Is Seller Central easy to use?
There is no fair way to answer this. It is under constant revision.

Will FBA increase my sales?
In the last FBA survey, 40% of sellers reported the same or increased sales under FBA; 35% reported no change; and 25% reported a decrease in sales.

In the same survey, 85% of FBA sellers reported an increase in Amazon fees, and 90% reported that their net income per item had decreased. 60% of sellers reported that participating in the FBA program consumed more time than fulfilling items themselves, and 40% reported that it saved time.

70% of sellers reported an increase in negative feedback and/or refunds under the FBA program.

Does FBA ship internationally?
Yes and No - there is an international program FBA sellers can subscribe to. However, this program is only available in 7 countries (for example, FBA sellers cannot sell to Canada).

Anybody else getting this error when trying to deposit/sweep funds?

FBA charges sellers a restocking fee?

Yes, it appears this is a new policy. FBA charges the seller 5% when an item is returned.

Ironically, this applies even if the return was a result of an FBA mistake!

Read the full thread here.

What FBA did to one seller's feedback

Another payment delay from FBA

...these happen about once or twice a month with Seller Central/Marketplace 2.0. Never any explanation why...and of course, they never offer to pay mortgage or credit card late fees, which directly result from their "technical problems".

FBA Users: Get used to this Seller Central error message

Seems like Seller Central/Marketplace 2.0 is constantly down. Getting this message 7 or 8 times a week:

FBA nickel & dimes sellers - fulfillment fees charged in pounds, not ounces

We've seen this several times, where an Amazon listing would mistakenly list a book as 14 pounds, not 14 ounces. Well, guess what ... that means you pay 10x additional storage fees, and 10x additional fulfillment fees.

Does that mean you have to look up each item's weight & dimensions on Amazon.com? YES!

Does this mean I could actually lose money selling a book? YES!

See the chart for cost comparisons. Keep in mind, while this happens a lot, the more common error is one that is off by several ounces, not several pounds ... an error that you would probably never notice.

Also keep in mind, it does not take an error like this to lose money on an FBA transaction. Sellers lose money all the time - by being forced to lower prices, by having an item sit in storage too long, on returned merchandise, by FBA restocking fees, etc:

Is Amazon deleting posts from the FBA discussion board?

We've been trying to find past posts & past comments on the FBA discussion board, but we can't find them!

Is Amazon deleting the more "sensitive" and critical posts from the FBA thread? The FBA thread is already pretty bad, riddled with complaints of all sorts...

FBA mixing up sellers inventories - you get the bad feedback & fallout from customer

We've seen this happen many times - once on our account, many times with other sellers.

FBA will put an item under your merchant sku, sell the item, then realize their mistake and cancel the order. Guess who gets the fallout (and negative comment) from the buyer? Of course! The seller always gets the negative feedback:

Click here to read the full thread, of yet another example of this

PS - We had an earlier thread about a seller who's account was suspended due to excessive negative feedback from FBA.

Inventory marked as "unsellable"

What happens if an item gets damaged in transit, on its way to the FBA warehouse?

Logic would dictate that FBA would notify you, and you could initiate an insurance claim through UPS or FedEx. WRONG!

Instead, they set the item aside and don't tell you why (meanwhile, you are paying storage fees). Keep in mind, there are a million reasons they might set an item aside - it's totally your guess until you email and ask. Then it might take days (or weeks) to get an answer.

If you discover an item has been damaged in transit, you can request to have the item shipped back to you at your expense (usual cost is about $3 per item per book, $5 per item for non-media), then it's completely up to you to file an insurance claim.

And, if you used FBA's preferred shipping method to send in your items (the FBA UPS account), you're out of luck. They will NOT help you file a claim.

(click to enlarge)

Broken FBA promise - bad feedback NOT removed

When we signed up for FBA, we were explicitly promised that we would NOT receive bad feedback as a result of Amazon's mistakes.

We were told it has NEVER happened in the past. On a follow-up phone conversation, the salesperson told us they were checking into ways to remove bad feedback, in case it ever happened. Exerpt from the email they sent:


However, we are receiving neutral & negative feedbacks from FBA mistakes. In fact, roughly 30% of our inventory is being fulfilled by Amazon, and 70% is fulfilled by us (called merchant-fulfilled). In the past 8 months, we have had 100% feedback (ZERO bad feedbacks) for self-fulfilled items, yet our FBA orders have generated close to 14% neutral and negative feedbacks!

FBA has sent the wrong items, sent items late, damaged items in their warehouse, etc. So, they promised us ZERO bad feedbacks, yet, in the past 8 months, 100% of our bad feedbacks has come from them! Think about it... there's a huge difference between 0% and 100%!

Naturally this slows down sales. And it's obviously not something we're doing wrong - we have always maintained close to 100% feedback.

But it now appears, however, that they never intended on taking any preventative measures against bad feedback. They are not working on ways to prevent or remove bad feedback as a result of FBA errors, have since updated their policy page as follows (click to enlarge):

Allow me to summarize - their policy is basically "bugger off".

Now, we get an angry letter from Amazon Alliance, saying that unless we improve our feedback, our account may be suspended. HUH???

The rule is, if sellers do not maintain minimum standards (maintaining less than 5% refund rate, more than 95% feedback, and keeping low A-Z claims), they will suspend your account. How ironic, that a 5-star, 100% seller is now being threatened with a suspended account due to Amazon's own mistakes, through no fault of their own!!!

FBA "Passive" fees are not explained up front - an additional $1.00 per item on average

Here are some passive fees that FBA charges, which are not explained up front:

FBA Advertised Fees (for book fulfillment):

• 15% normal Amazon commission

• 50¢ fee for books under $25

• $1.00 fee for books over $25

• 40¢ fee per pound for shipping

• $1.35 fee per book (variable closing fee)

• 45¢ fee per month storage (per cubic foot)

Additional FBA Passive Fees (you must read the small print):

• 5% restocking fee on returned items

• 3-12¢ per item, cost of FBA labels (some books require 3 or 4 labels)

• 30-36 ¢ per item (cost of shipping items to FBA warehouse)*

• 25-50¢ per item storage fee (assuming 45-90 day turnaround per item)

• 45-75¢ per item storage fee (assuming 45-90 day turnaround during 4th quarter, holiday storage fee rates)**

* Cost of shipping. Keep in mind, you have no control over which FBA warehouse is assigned to you. There are only a few FBA warehouses. We must ship our items to Reno NV, which is a remote location and expensive to ship there. Average shipment is 50 books per box / 45 pounds. Media Mail (generally the cheapest rate) is $18 in postage, or 36¢ per item.

**Additionally, most sellers underestimate FBA storage fees. Keep in mind, the rate jumps to 65 cents per foot per month during the 3 Christmas shopping months. Also keep in mind, they take the larger of the weight-based or volume-based calculation, and round up. (Not sure what this means? Neither do we...but it results in more fees)

**Many sellers think they can "raise" the price of inventory by $3.99, just by having them fulfilled by Amazon, and offset these costs Think again. There is another post entirely dedicated to this. Just remember - you can never surpass Amazon's price (which is often 30-40% below retail price), it's unlikely customer will pay more than the sticker price on an item, and if you're the only seller of an item, you cannot justify raising the price.

**Final note - here are some other costs not usually considered:

• 100% restocking fee (no seller credit) on items FBA considered damaged

• 100% restocking fee (no seller credit) when FBA refunds a customer but does not require them to return the item

• 100% loss on items damaged during transit to FBA

• $1.25 more per item (or more) for non-media items
  

• $2.00 - $5.50 additional fees for non-Amazon orders (or more)

• and, of course... $1,000's of dollars, if an FBA mistake gets your account suspended, or they lose your deposit, or any number of other glitches that hold up your money.